The previous fortnight (June 1st to June 15th) has seen a lot of news about the UAE web being published in the mainstream media. More and more of government and business services are going online. This is only the beginning. Analysts are already stating that the Internet is replacing TV as a major infotainment and advertising medium. Microsoft is trying to come to terms with the fact that PC applications are becoming more and more web-centred and going the route that Google is forging.

With this bevy of news, I have tried to reorganise the UAE Web of Life ezine, in an attempt to present content in an easier to read manner. The objective of this ezine has always been to serve as an update or record of what is happening in the UAE Internet community.
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The UAECommunity bloggers forum has reorganised its blog lists. Blogs have now been segregated into more categories – Community, UAE, General, Specialist etc. UAECommunity also conducts a regular spring cleaning, weeding out blogs that have not been updated in months.

“…We are a non-profit, amateur, expat football club run by a team ofvolunteers. We compete in the various Leagues in and around Dubai andtrain regularly – atleast three times a week. We are proud of ourdiversity, our current squad contains players from India, Germany, UK,France, Lebanon, Romania, Somalia, Singapore, Jordan, Turkey, andGreece. In-fact we welcome all players regardless of age, ability andnationality. All are welcome, If you’d like to join, contact us andwe’ll guide you to our next training session where you can meet someof the guys...”

“…mylinkDubai will enable companies to go online and network with a wider business community in Dubai and within the region. Under the new system, each company will receive a webpage to promote its products and services, setup an online showroom, conduct e-exhibitions, generate and respond to trade leads, attract new vendors and negotiate business deals online…..”.More: http://www.strategiy.com/itnew.asp?id=20060606105614

The Mega Stadium, from Dubai’s Mideast Solutions and British media firm Direct Media Network, will offer a free forum to fans of the game to chat, forecast results and rub shoulders with other fans around the globe.

Now nationals from the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait no longer need a visa label stuck in their passports. Instead they can apply online for electronic visas and no longer need to mail their passports to the consulate, which deals with all Gulf visa applications.

With online trading currently making up around 15-20 per cent of retail activity in the UAE, the continued rise in the volume of brokerage activities will drive retail investors to migrate fully online in due time, according to an EFGHermes report. Online activity is still relatively small in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, 50 per cent of retail brokerage takes place online, whereas in the US and other developed markets, over 80 per cent of retail operates online. More: http://213.132.44.184/emiratestoday/ArticleText.aspx?article=14_06_2006_014_004

Dubai Land Department has adopted Dubai eGovernment’s ePay System to allow users of its portal, to make online payments. ePay is a centralised payment gateway integrated with the payment systems of government departments, thereby enabling payment either through credit cards or eDirham.

Dubai eGovernment yesterday launched the e-payments facility – Direct Debit – for all government transactions, in partnership with Dubai Municipality, Etisalat and Commercial Bank of Dubai. While only Commercial Bank of Dubai account-holders will be able to avail of this direct debit solution, other banks are expected to follow suit.This is how the service will work: payments can be initiated by the customer online through the service provider’s website and the final authentication will be carried out by the bank online. And the customers’ records would be immediately updated.

Etisalat has announced a significant increase in Internet bandwidth in the UAE with another 12 STM1 links being provisioned to meet user needs taking the total number of links to 49. The increased capacity of 7.5 Gbps (Gigabits per second) is the highest bandwidth capacity available with any single provider in the region. The expansion in capacity has been done with a view to accommodate the growth in Internet usage in the UAE and help in maintaining redundancy of operations.More: http://www.strategiy.com/itnew.asp?id=20060610104710

———————————————————————————-> 1) Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your educational and work background?———————————————————————————-I grew up watching Japanese imported Anime (English dubbed versions) in the USA, but didn’t really develop an interest in Japanese culture until my college years when I became friends with a lovely girl from Japan. After that, I started watching Anime in Japanese with subtitles (the storylines can differ significantly since there are often subtle references which are only understood when one is familiar with Japanese pop culture and/or customs) and also branched out into Japanese rock / pop music and later Japanese films. I moved to the UAE not long after graduating with my Bachelors degree and have been in Abu Dhabi for nearly 10 years now.

—————————————————> 2) What inspired you to start J-AMFM?—————————————————It is both a passion and a dedication. I have a longstanding interest in Japanese culture and it’s a wonderful feeling being able to share this intriguing and fascinating world with others.It was a little over a year ago that J-AMFM came into being, mostly by chance. I had attended a Japanese language course offered by the Japanese Embassy in Abu Dhabi and a few of us wanted to keep practicing after the course ended, so we formed another group (Japanese Language Speakers or JLS of Abu Dhabi) to enable us to keep in touch. In fact, J-AMFM was originally started as a companion group to JLS as a large number of people who had attended the Japanese language course did so because of their interest in Japanese Anime. I never expected that it would eventually have a greater response than the JLS group – lol.

———————————————————-> 3) How has the response to your forum been so far?———————————————————-Believe it or not, neither group did much in their first year of existence and we struggled to get people to attend the meetings. At one point, I was so frustrated with the poor attendance, I even considered closing both groups! Then, almost miraculously, toward the end of last year, there was a surge of people suddenly wanting to join J-AMFM and the group was ‘re-born’ in 2006. We are now going strong and have had meetings nearly every week for the past two months when before we were lucky to have a meeting once a month! All I can say is many, many thanks to the members who have really shown their support and whom I’m really delighted to call my friends ^_^

————————————————————————————————> 4) Any interesting tid-bits and happenings that you can share from the forum?————————————————————————————————I think that the greatest thing about this group is that age is no boundary when people come together to share their common interest. Our members range in age from early teens to mid-thirties; yet, everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the meetings and the younger members often bring fresh perspectives that really enliven the discussions. I even got hooked on a really great series thanks to the suggestion of one of those younger members – lol.

———————————————————> 5) What are your other interests and hobbies?———————————————————Reading the above, you might think that my life revolves around Japanese media (and in a way, that’s not far from the truth – lol), but I also like to read the occasional novel and I’m very keen on working with computers. So, I guess you could call those my ‘other interests and hobbies’.

——————————————————————————————–> 7) What is your motto or philosophy of life that you would like to share with our readers? ——————————————————————————————–

Favorite quote by which I live my life: “If you were to choose between two trees, an oak and a willow, which one would you rather be. The oak which stands tall amidst the raging storm or the willow which bends beneath the force of the gale. You might think the oak is best; yet, once the wind ceases, the willow will also stand tall again while the oak may have a few broken limbs.” No clue who said it first and I’ve heard loads of variations on the same theme, but its simple philosophy remains the same each time.